Chapter 3
'"Kill the Bugger!"' ''-New York Mob battle-cry following the fraudulent election of 1801'' The year of 1801 was a brutal one for the USA. The economy was in the metaphorical toilet, the homeless and jobless numbers exploded, and the French conflict was an undeniable defeat for the country. French and Spanish soldiers were regularly making excursions upon American soil, not on the intent of conquering, for the two European countries had more than enough restless territory on their hands, but to force Adams to agree to a peace. The French were willing to be lenient on the US, as there was no real damage done to them or theirs. The Spanish, still seething over the Louisiana attack, wanted more of a punishment. The punishment came in the form of economic payments to the Spanish Crown, agreed to at the Second Treaty of Paris, which pushed the US economy further into the abyss. Adams and Hamilton's government was falling apart at the seams, and the civil unrest was already kicking into gear. The first example of secessionist tendencies came from South Carolina, followed by North Carolina, Georgia, and Vermont. Vermont was made a state in an effort to calm it down, which worked to some degree, but the Southerners kept talking about drawing themselves out of the Imperfect Union, because, they said, every state had the right to do as such. The main leader of the South and North Carolina secessionist movement was Andrew Jackson, a young soldier in the Raleigh Militia. A through-and-through states' right movement supporter, he claimed to have enough clout to pull the two Carolinas out of the USA and form the "Grand Republic of the Carolinas. A possible union with Georgia was also tossed about, making the idea of a "Confederation of the South" popular. Later, Virginia was rumored to be a supporter of pulling out, but it denied it would ever join the "Carolinian rapscallions" in any union. It became a known fact that if Virginia left, it would form its own republic and tear the country apart right down the middle. Adams felt sick as he saw mobs gather every day in New York City, right outside the Presidential Mansion, and burn him in effigy. Guards blocked all access to his home, but there had been several radicals who had tried to rush the walls. They were met with rifle butts to the face and prison wagons. The tension was so thick it could have been cut with a bayonet. Then the campaign season started. Sure enough, Thomas Jefferson and James Madison had reformed their tagteam to take Adam and Hamilton down. "This lying scoundrel is nothing but a hermaphroditic tyrant who wants to murder all who oppose him and desecrate our Freedom," said Jefferson's propaganda. Even Adams' old friend Thomas Paine, now living in France where his new friend Napoleon Bonaparte had offered him a cabinet position, turned against the President of the United States in Congress Assembled, calling him "Louis XVI of North America." "When Adams' Tuileries Palace crumbles about him, he shall see what the people truly think of his Bourgeoisie ideology." For all of 1800, the USA was a defeated, crushed, bankrupt country with no way to pay off its debts. The Articles did not allow enough means to raise money to pay off the national debt. It continued to get worse and worse. Outright civil violence popped up in Boston and Philadelphia as several Federalist government officials were seized and lynched by dockworkers. Soldiers were sent in to arrest them, and instead of cooperating, the civilians in both cities rioted, ending in 52 soldiers and 83 civilians killed or crippled. Indians on the frontier were growing increasingly bold, and they suddenly seemed to start exclusively targeting government homes and territory, and suspicions were rising that state governments had payed the natives off. Finally, 1801 had arrived. Hamilton's men did the same thing they had done four years before. But instead of only having to change some votes, they discovered almost all the votes were for Jefferson and Madison. A woefully pitiful amount of Adams/Hamilton votes were cast, comprising about 1 to 2 percent of the entire population, most of them Federalist officials. The voting fraud goons had a devil of a time creating enough fake ballots to pull off the win. They did manage to "reelect" the current administration, though, and the unrest exploded. Allegations of fraud circulated immediately, followed by people saying it had to be fraud. In Boston, a Federalist election official was kidnapped and tortured until he told the truth, admitting Adams had cheated his way to power both times. On May 18, the Congress of the Carolinas was held in Charleston to seek a vote for secession. Overwhelmingly, the individual counties voted to leave the United States, forming the Confederation of the Carolinas, and the delegates from both states then elected Andrew Jackson as Emergency Chancellor. A democratic election would be held as soon as the new nation stabilized and was satisfied the USA would not try to resist them. The frontier territorial disputes between the two states were solved upon union, forming the State of West Carolina, which also joined the Confederation. Georgia, now cut off in every way from the USA, also formed its own country, the Republic of Georgia. It was quite large, stretching from the Atlantic to the Mississippi. West Florida, which had been a haven for pro-American Louisianans, rebelled against Spain, and with Georgian assistance formed the West Florida Republic. It took up Georgia's entire coastline on the Gulf of Mexico, but Georgians were allowed to freely come and go into West Florida, making future Georgian annexation almost impossible to avoid. Finally, an armed militia assaulted the guards at the New York City Presidential Mansion, burning half of it down and causing massive casualties. Willard Crawford, an officer from the Revolution, announced he would lead all rebels willing to fight the next day. Thousands of men showed up and engaged the government bluecoats in New York City itself. Despite an incredible amount of bloodshed and destruction, the rebels seized control of the capital. Adams and Hamilton were captured attempting to flee further north, possibly to Canada, and were thrown in the Livingston Sugar House, in Manhattan, which had been used to hold 500 prisoners at a time during the War for Independence. Before long, most of the government was locked up in the building. Revanchist mobs gathered outside demanding they be executed. Things were about to wrap up for the history of the United States, and Adams and Hamilton would betray each other before it was over. Category:Main Timeline